New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1887-04-03
DOWN IN THE BIG AQUEDUCT.
PHASES OF THE WORK NEAR CRoTON LAKE.

Work is plainly q little slack just now along
The line of the new Aqueduct. Swarms OF dirty
brawling, drunken laborers no longer overr1n The
Westchestcr towns on pay days and holidays
Scarcely once a month now is some luCllless Ita-
ian or nero pitched out Of the fatal lifting
bucket into the depths of shaft, to have his
neck broken his head dashed to pieces against
its rocky walls. The shabby little villages of
sleeping huts and liquor shops that grew up
around the back country stations have been de-
serted in great part or swept away for rubbish.
And the shafts themselves nov adays have noth
ing more startling to show above ground than -
huge pile Of jagged bruken. grayish Stone, OF
beneath than q black horseshoe shaped tunnel
tome fourteen feet in diameter. stretching away
for miles Oh either side into the darkness Five
s.Xths of the rough work of tunncllinG has, In
fact. already been done. The new aqucduct, fom
the gatehouse at Croton Lake to The Harlem
reservoir, is to be about thirty-one miles long
Iwcnty-fo,r miles and half in sections here and
there have been cut through to the full diameter,
and neatly mile more has been opened up in
part. Only five miles and quarter are still left
to work on, and the engineers hope to yet through
with the tunnclling proper by next October.
TIE whole Of the work was to take three years
from January, 1885. The masonry and brick
lining cannot be put in, however, for eighteen
now whether any water from Croton Lake can he
sent running thro Ugh the fine new aqucduct be-
fore 1890.
THE STARTING POINT AT CROTON LAKE.
Strangely enough the work is most backward at
the start in g-pcn Of the line. Just Mt the outlet Of
the lake. where the so-cacd CrotOn River the
waste water of the old aqucduct system, flows of
in npisy rapids toward the Hudson. Here on both
sides of the river, sheltered by the steep hills
which fence in both lake and outlet, thriving
little colony Of buidcis engineers ana wOillmen
las planted itself. Down near the bottom of the
valley is the bic gTaystonc house of The chief en-
rinccr, and on the slopes one above the other, the
fam" sheds and sLors and Offices. most Of them
but one story high, in which the men live and the
business of the engineers, the storclecpcrs and
the biz contracting firms Is transacted.
Just on the bank of the lalc-dam is the white
stone gatc-house of the old aqucduct and stretch.
ing away down the valley toward the Hudson IS
the aqueduct itself almost showing on the surface,
marked here and there with its high white stone
air-shafts, each eight or ten feet high. AbOVe it
on the edge of the hills is the water line of the
proposed great Quaker Bridge reservoir, sweeping
back for miles up the valley. over woods and fields,
swallowing up river, dam. gate.housc and village
in one tremendous artificial lake.
High over the offices and shops at Croton Lake
is q bit Of coping, the tip of granite wall built
in against the hill-slore, which shows the level Of
the new DAM Here the gate-house of the aquc-
duct will be put if the Quaker Bridge scheme is
carried through. For the present and to fit the
old dim it must be built lower down. the bic con-
duit into which the water has first to run uncon-
trocd being dug far below the level of the pres
cnt lake. With this conduit the new aqucduct
practically begins. 1t is smooth. round brick
lined tunnel, fourteen feet in diameter, through
which the water will Tour unhampeied into the
whirling, boiling sluices and chambers of the big
gate-hOuSe. Beyond the gatehOusc stretching
away due south, over three hundred feet below
the surface, is the horscshoe-shapcd aQucduct
proper.
The shaft that runs down through The side Of
the hill to meet the big tunnel beyond the gate
house is called Shaft Zero. To Shaft one. a mile
below, the way is cut clear underground and
part Of it is lined ready for with mason work
AMI bricll-worIl. Beyond One the way has been
cut for a half mile or more There ones passage
is STOPPED abruptly by a heading on which the
Italians and nc7rOrs in force digoing and hl"St
ing. The rOcl; Is pierced yard V yard, men work
Inc the upper section of the tunnel in one place.
on the lower i'll another; dripping wet from the
heat and moisture. swearing, singing, hallooing
the darkness lit only by few duh oil wiclls or
Pickering gasoline lanrs the air foul with all the
odois Of an unvcnilatcd mine.
1t is the first rough work OF excavation, as the
smooth rounded brick walls and solid floors al
Shaft Zero are the finishing torches to the huge
conduit. And between the heading in Shaft One
and the Croon eate-housc one can still run across
all the phases Of work III the new aqucduct.
THROUGH THE UNFINISHED TUNNEL
Oncc fairly in the tunnel at the Gate-house,
where the pencils of light from the sloping shaft
still hold family, one gets a vivid impression of
It's vastncss. The roof arches dimly eight or nine
feet overhead Under foot the way is broad
enough for car track and two side PATHS Fur
ther in the lamps rays cannot reach either roof
sides Here and there. too. in bad spots the
walls are prOpped with timbcrs to a height of
twenty feet The floor has been laid in cement
and solid masonry half way tn ough, and in places
the bricl1ayerS arc at work putting in the final
coatings
The biclllaycrs work by little cluster of cleo
trio lights, the only bright spot in long, dark
tramp. BEYOND them, where the rough edges Of
the tunnel have n been cut away yet nor the
iojr put down, walking Is difficult and un
certain. Little streams drip from the roof and
trichle from he Sides and there puddlcS every
where and often sinks, foot or two deep, in
which the water collects and from which IT is
drained through system of small pipes By the
engines at the shaft openings.
Half way between the two shafts the tunnel is
only partly cut again and has TO crawl over
the slippery rocks Of the floor and duck at tho
same time to miss the jutting roof overhead A
wooden partition with sliding door is the diyid
ins point Here the VI nds rush through fcrcely
putting out al a breath everything but a good case
lamp. and on the further side, where the tunnel
swclis out acain 10 its normal size, there l., a
sharp break in tie ground, down which a little
brook OF water spaIlllcs.
Near SHAFT One the car-traclIs BEGIN again and
the sides and roof grow smooth and regular The
mud and rain increase, however, and where the
shalt opens at last there is Il steady downpolIr
The big engine by puffs and throhs, and car,
loads Of broken stone arc being lifted one by one
32j feet up INTO tie open air. The cars are run
on sort Of atform and lifted bodily. The
bucket system, even for the men, has long been
discarded here.